Reet Petite

From: Kenneth Van Oost (kennethvanoost@belgacom.net)
Date: Tue 20 Sep 2005 - 19:35:14 GMT

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    .........Never before or since it has been so quiet on the memetical front as the time we' re experiencing !! I can 't believe and will not believe that this achening silence symbolizes the end of a process of discovery; a proces of personal fulfillement; of expressing tenden- cies, yet subject to critique either rational or iirational, but formost formative and dynamic.

    So the next must boost the scope of memetics and particular of this list, only through the study of test- cases memetics will be effective.

    << We all know the song Reet Petite sung by Jacky Wilson. Wilson made it a smash hit at the beginning of the R &R area in 1957. It is also the tittle of a classical musical_ Reet Petite and Gone_ with Louis Jordan ( 1947 ).

    I searched the net but didn 't find any convincing page regarding what the lyrics are all about, but over here in Belgium, more specific the Flanders and right in the middle of my own personal slang/ dialect we have the expression,

    " Getting the reet- petiten ", what may be regarded as ' getting it hard on my nerves '. It is though more as naggin '....

    This expression can and is applied as for persons as for material things, so my wife's rattling about her bad haircut can give me the reet petiten as would the repeated malfunctions of my car.

    So, if the fancy may be permitted, how can it be understood that a tittle of a R & R song is part_ or became part of my own native slang/ dialect !? Who came first !? I always heard my mother use it and she's now death for more than 30 years... !?

    Or is Reet Petite as something more common, as something of a more general characteristic of language !? What does it mean !? Its meaning would give me clues as to what extend it became part of my tongue !

    Is it the symbol of a languistic tradition, may it be identified as a very component of what was once or becomes an universal language !?

    Is it an universal meme, like ' Killroy was Here ' !?

    Has anyone an answer !?

    Regards,

    Kenneth

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